The present invention relates to a sleeve that covers a handheld oximeter probe while the oximeter probe is in use. The sleeve prevents the oximeter probe from becoming contaminated with patient tissue or fluid during use and facilitates the reuse of the oximeter probe or a portion of the oximeter probe.
Oximeters are medical devices used to measure oxygen saturation of tissue in humans and living things for various purposes. For example, oximeters are used for medical and diagnostic purposes in hospitals and other medical facilities (e.g., operating rooms for surgery, recovery room for patient monitoring, or ambulance or other mobile monitoring for, e.g., hypoxia); sports and athletic purposes at a sports arena (e.g., professional athlete monitoring); personal or at-home monitoring of individuals (e.g., general health monitoring, or person training, such as for a marathon); and veterinary purposes (e.g., animal monitoring). In these environments, oximeters can become contaminated from coming in contact with patient tissue and fluid.
Oximeters tend to be relatively costly devices where reuse of the oximeters or portions of the oximeters can provide a cost saving for medical facilities or others that use these devices. Despite the success of existing oximeters, there is a continuing desire to improve oximeters by providing oximeters that can be reused.
Therefore, there is a need for improved oximeters and sleeves that cover the oximeters during use and that facilitate reuse of all or a portion of the oximeters.